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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25376215">Darling</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewitcherssongbird/pseuds/thewitcherssongbird'>thewitcherssongbird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Kiss, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia Has Feelings, M/M, Pet Names</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:33:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,548</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25376215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewitcherssongbird/pseuds/thewitcherssongbird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It all started when Jaskier first drawled a “Darling”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>189</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Darling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is really just a drabble of sorts because we all need a little more of Jaskier calling Geralt darling</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It all started quite a while after they first met and Jaskier had wormed himself into Geralt’s life despite his best attempts to drive him off. It all started when Jaskier first drawled “Darling” and Geralt let the knife he had been using slip and cut a shallow gash over the back of his hand. Darling. Jaskier had never called him darling. Nobody had ever called him darling.<br/>
Geralt couldn’t remember what Jaskier had been chattering about when he’d first called him that godawful pet name, he could barely remember Jaskier frowning and helping him bandage his hand because all he had been able to think about at the time was the sound of that word rolling so casually off Jaskier’s tongue, dripping like some poison that Geralt was all too happy to lick off his lips.<br/>
Something had sprung free from its cage as if that damned word had been the key. It was a clench in his chest whenever the fire illuminated the planes of Jaskier’s face, it was a shortness of breath whenever Jaskier laughed and a fluttering in his stomach whenever he smiled. It was a gut punched sensation whenever Jaskier said… it.<br/>
See, it didn’t stop after that first time, it appeared more frequently, hiding inbetween Jaskier’s mindless talking and Geralt’s mindless listening and as soon as it he heard it, Geralt couldn’t breathe. </p><p>Jaskier wasn’t stupid. At least he thought he wasn’t. Unless he was imagining things, Geralt had at least some fondness for him. The question was, how far did that fondness go?<br/>
Jaskier wasn’t sure if Geralt knew what he felt like. After all, it wasn’t as if he could sense the way Jaskier’s heart tugged in his chest whenever a particularly cutting remark made it past Geralt’s hard exterior, hitting home and pulling Geralt’s face into an expression that Jaskier couldn’t help wanting to kiss away.<br/>
After all, Geralt couldn’t sense how much Jaskier enjoyed their dynamic, their taking care of each other and dancing around each other in a familiar pattern. Geralt couldn’t know how Jaskier felt when he coaxed a smile from Geralt, catching a hint before the witcher turned away or hid behind his hair.<br/>
Geralt couldn’t possibly know how he felt.<br/>
Jaskier had started calling him darling. It wasn’t his fault. Gradually it had just slipped past his defenses and settled itself inbetween his endless monologue. It had just happened. Geralt had never seemed to object although sometimes Jaskier glimpsed an odd expression on his face when he let it slip again.</p><p>“You absolute heathen, darling, you can’t possibly like it like that? It’s practically ash. You’re eating ash. Have you ever heard of medium rare? Do you even have a sense of taste? Sometimes I’m really convinced you don’t.”<br/>
The sun was scorching the world, the heat had chased them into the forest and to the riverbank where Geralt had spotted lunch. Jaskier had watched as Geralt killed and skinned the deer, making a useless nuisance of himself with that lazy expression on his face as he lounged in the shade until Geralt threw a stick at him and told him to make a fire unless he wanted to eat the thing raw.<br/>
Geralt couldn’t fight the smile creeping across his lips as he took another bite of his “culinary disaster” which most people would really have referred to as well done venison.<br/>
Darling. The word rolled so smoothly into Jaskier’s speech, as if he didn’t even notice it was there but that couldn’t be true. Jaskier couldn’t possibly not notice something that Geralt noticed so much.<br/>
There it was again, that shortness of breath, that feeling in his chest of his heart just begging to be freed from its bodily prison and jump into Jaskier’s waiting hands. Well it would have to stay right where it was because he needed it to stop fooling around and get back to other things like pumping blood and not pining after colourful bards.<br/>
“Why do you call me that?” Geralt blurted. But he couldn’t take it back, so instead he sat, reclining against the trunk of the tree and watched Jaskier sitting next to him and stabbing his lunch with both knife and fork as he wrestled with the food, struggling to eat without ruining his colourful ensemble.<br/>
“What, a heathen? Well because anyone who eats burnt meat and enjoys has been abandoned by the gods. Obviously.” Jaskier took another careful bite of his lunch, leaning comically over his plate to avoid any stains on his doublet<br/>
Geralt snorted. “No, not that.”<br/>
He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just leave it at that. Jaskier’s brows pinched in confusion and then, “You mean… you mean why do I call you darling?”<br/>
And then he had Jaskier’s attention and he shivered under the weight of it. Jaskier’s eyes found his for a moment, bright sapphire facets in the midday turning afternoon sun, before he looked down again, fiddling with his knife.<br/>
“I don’t know.” His voice was soft, barely audible over the rush of the river.<br/>
It was quiet for a moment. “Don’t you?”<br/>
Jaskier picked at his food in the pointed way that he did when he was putting something off. “Because… because it feels right?” And there were those sapphires again when he looked up from under his lashes, a vulnerable expression on his face. “Because it just slips out and I can’t stop it. Because I can’t stop saying it and… and I don’t want to stop saying it.”<br/>
Jaskier was offering Geralt a truth here, offering him a piece of himself that was so very fragile. His eyes slipped from Geralt’s, catching on his lips and Geralt still can’t breathe.<br/>
He didn’t quite know what to with that. He held it with shaking hands scrabbling for something to say that wouldn’t break this but he’d never been good at saying things and he didn’t want to break this soft thing between them just yet.<br/>
They looked at each other, eyes soft in the afternoon sun. Geralt couldn’t look at those bright blues that hovered on his own lips so instead he shifted his gaze to Jaskier’s lips. Lips that were so familiar from all the times he’d stared at them pulled into smiles and frowns and laughs and songs and gentle tilts of happiness as he dozed in the sun or shared a knowing look with Geralt.<br/>
He knew what he wanted. He’d always known what he wanted when he was looking at Jaskier’s lips but now Jaskier was is looking at his lips and they were both avoiding each other’s eyes like children with secrets on the tips of their tongues, just waiting to tumble free and possibly make a mess of everything.<br/>
He inched closer, close enough to hear Jaskier’s heart beat a rapid pace. And then it was a quiet whisper. “Darling…” Geralt’s breath caught, a soft whine escaped and then, finally, he closed the distance between them.<br/>
It was barely a brush of their lips, a warm exhale against his skin before they broke apart but a hand cupping his jaw kept him close. “Again,” Jaskier whispered and it sounded like a plea and a demand at the same time, Geralt could barely comprehend it through the haze in his brain.<br/>
And then they were properly kissing and there was no denying it anymore. Jaskier tasted of venison and in his addled state, Geralt thought that medium rare did taste better. Jaskier tasted of venison and the tea he’d made that morning and something that didn’t have a name, something that was just Jaskier.<br/>
Jaskier’s lips were soft and the probing tongue that gently requested access was even more so. Geralt opened for him, let him in like he always would.<br/>
Their plates clattered somewhere between them as Jaskier broke the kiss to climb into Geralt’s lap, wrapping his arms around Geralt’s shoulders and dropping his forehead to Geralt’s. They breathed for a moment before Jaskier threaded his fingers through Geralt’s hair and pulled so that Geralt had no choice but to tilt his head up to be met with Jaskier’s gentle mouth.<br/>
It was odd. Kissing just to kiss. A kiss that led to nothing more. It was odd but Geralt found that it was better than any kiss he’d had before. It felt like it lasted forever and no time at all before Jaskier pressed short but firm pecks to his lips and then a soft kiss to his forehead before he took a deep breath and crawled off Geralt’s lap.<br/>
Geralt missed his weight on him. He was about to tell Jaskier as much but before he could say so much as ‘get back here’, Jaskier dusted off his clothes and grimaced at a smear of grease on his doublet.<br/>
“Right that’s enough. I’m not one to… you know, after the first kiss but if we keep on like that I just might.” Geralt scoffed. “Besides, look at this!” Jaskier gestured to the stain on his clothes.<br/>
Geralt stood and Jaskier jabbed a finger into his chest. “This is all your fault.”<br/>
Geralt couldn’t help loving the squeeze in his chest. He smiled, and the very best thing was the grin on Jaskier’s face when he noticed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading, please leave kudos and comments ;)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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